How Many Good People Are There in the World?

In Chicago, a warmhearted woman named Carol CC Miller wanted to embrace the world, so she created Global Free Hugs Weekend, in 2008, to be held on the first Saturday and Sunday in May. I jumped on board a few years ago, since I founded Hugmobsters Armed with Love in 2014 and wanted my hugs to count toward Carol’s goal of one million hugs. Today, I estimated 25 hugs shared, both heart to heart and virtual, since some people are more comfortable sans physical contact. Although I have hugged throughout the country, in Canada and in 2018, I hugged my way through Ireland, I usually stick close to home, hugging it out on the streets of Doylestown, PA. Later in the day, I went to an Earth Day celebration at the Bucks County Audubon Society and was referred to as a ‘feral hugger’.

I was decked out in my t-shirt that has two simple words on it HUG DEALER. It usually brings smiles and today, invitations to hug. Some who I hugged were friends and others strangers who said an enthusiastic YES! I started out at our local farmers’ market where I encountered familiar people and then toward the end of my time there, I saw two women who, like me offered FREE MOM HUGS. They noticed the sign I was carrying with that message on it. FREE MOM HUGS was founded by Sara Cunningham and there are chapters throughout the country that support the LGBTQ+ community. They reminded me that I was ‘hugging in the wild’.

I do this as part of my ‘ministry’. I am an ordained interfaith minister who graduated from The New Seminary in 1999, and a therapist, among other things and I am abundantly aware of the need for safe, nurturing, platonic touch, by consent. There is an epidemic of loneliness in the world and hugs bring people together across all divides. Today, hugs bridged a divide in an unexpected way.

As I was making my way through town, I saw two men standing in front of a store with an unusual sign that invited conversation as it asked How Many Good People Are There in the World? I stopped to engage in dialog with them and said I needed to clarify what constituted a good person to me. Someone who believes that everyone has the same rights, regardless of skin color, age, socio-economic background, gender, sexual orientation, religion or culture. Someone who takes care of others and expresses kindness. Someone who disavows hatred. Someone who practices what they preach. Kind of like Jesus.

In that case, I pointed to the part of the sign that said 75%. The men shook their heads and said that according to God, the answer is 0. None of us are inherently good, which I totally disagree with. I don’t accept the original sin concept. They expressed what they thought of as biblical truth. They spoke about Adam and Eve. I asked them the obvious question, if Adam and Eve had two sons, where did the rest of the people come from? They made some reference to them having sisters with whom they had sex. I questioned what they thought about incest. Their answer was somehow that if it was God’s idea, it was acceptable.

They preached hellfire and brimstone and fear of God, even as we have free will. They spoke of a deity who strikes people down for disobedience and lawlessness. My natural tangent was to ask them if they had voted for the current occupant of the Oval Office. They had. I attempted to clarify that it was a dichotomy since he is as un-Christlike as any human can be. They attempted to deflect, with the younger of the two saying politics and spirituality were different. My take is that they are intertwined and it isn’t about Left vs. Right, but about values. I asked about how they felt about the crimes committed by their dude. Again, the response was that all politicians are unethical. The older one who had been a deacon for a church, brought up the topic of abortion and the sin involved in that reality for some people. He said that he and his wife had a conversation many years ago that if she got raped, she would carry a pregnancy to term. I pointed out that this would have been their choice. I am not pro-abortion. I am pro-choice and don’t think anyone should be compelled to carry a pregnancy unless they truly wanted to. Those who claim to be pro-life are often just pro-birth and are not concerned about the wellbeing of that child once they are born.

Sister Joan Chittister was quoted as saying, “I do not believe that just because you are opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, a child educated, a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Although I didn’t bring this up in conversation, I now wonder what they would have said about DT decked out (via AI) in vestments, doing a Pope cos-play. Even thought I am not Catholic, I find it offensive any day of the year, but especially in the wake of the death of Pope Francis. Would his Catholic supporters call this a bridge too far?

The doctrine that these men profess is that only Jesus is the way to experience God’s favor. Here’s the thing, I love Jesus. I honor his teachings. I don’t call myself a Christian. I was raised Jewish and practiced the rituals that he did. I see him as a way shower and a guide to how we can live in the world. Christianity was never the religion of Jesus. It was a religion about Jesus. I don’t hold, as these men do, that people are condemned to eternal hell if they are not toeing the company line. I asked them if they knew the Hebrew translation for the word ‘sin’. Deacon-man got the answer right. It means to miss the mark, as in archery. If we miss, we get to aim again, this time, aiming true, being the kindest, most loving, compassionate, empathetic version of ourselves, what some of his fellows would refer to as ‘woke’. I told them that Love is my religion and God is too big to fit into any one box. I told them that I commune with God all throughout my day. I call them my Godversations. We spoke at least 20 minutes and no one else joined the conversation. Maybe they didn’t want to get pulled in. I ended it by thanking them for their time and blessed them. I asked if they wanted hugs. They both said yes.

I still contend that there are many good people on the planet, whether or not they follow the teachings of the Rebel Rabbi/Holy Rascal. I would have loved to have hugged him. I bet he was a good hugger.